Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-03-12
ISLAND or HONGKoNs.
"A STROLL ABOUT THE BRITISH
ISLE II CHINADOM.
Home Life in Junks-Besgars Fsfth
a Beggar king-Chinese Pre-
LESSONS and Methods.
Especial RpooaD-Usos Correspondence


always much drift to be found; many things
of value, but oftenr refuse. If THIS be true
of two tides, what must We expect of such
a place as Victoria, Hongkong where the
human tides from Europe America, India
and China meet in a vast maelstrom
whirled by passion for gain, and all seems
forgotten but the power OF gold? Amid
all this turmoil l know many Of worth, but
to the transient visitor they are hidden by
the dust of greedy strife which rises on
every side. Than the island and city itself,
no place can be more beautiful to the eye
from the brown fringe of Poverty-laden
junks which floats languidly into the green
bay, to the dizzy summit Of the Peak
through the garden-covered hillsides. The
eve is undisturbed. but alas, the other
senses are often tortured while through
the eve, though reEeling in the beautiful
colonng, the heart is every moment moved
to pity With dozen words OF history in
our miAds, let US take
A STROLL ABOUT THE LITTLE ISLAND,
With its irregular coast of twenty-six
miles. This is the most eastern British
/. possession, and was coded 10 Great Britain
in 1S41, and the opposite shore Of Kowloon
was ceded in 1861. Precious lives were the
prices paid, through sword and fever as
brokers' and monumental shafts in many
places preserve the memory of noble men
whose Anglo-Saxon names are good to see
and good to hear. Walk slong the Praya
buildings of the banks and merchant firms
whose names are worldwide known on
the right is the land-locked bay full of
steamers and ships from all the quarters of
the globe. Flags of al nations and private
ensigns are floating in the breeze of this
pleasant January day. With prows to the
stone quay, lie the implanted junks and
sampans, so close together that the water is
hidden and they are sometimes three rows
deep. A sampan is small, shoe-shaped
boat padded along from the stern in gon-
.dola fashin, usually by women, who, in
most cases, carry wee bit Of brown hu-
mainly strapped to their backs. Children
are thus rocked into life through babyheod
by the very motions of the hardest toll to
which in time they are to fall heirs.
LIVING IN JUNKs.
The junks are large and vary in rig and
build, but always having the masts well
forward the stern is high, and often has
speaking. shelves-where people sleep and
where the family penates find place with
burning incense before them. There the
good housewife, or rather boatwife, attends
TO her boathold duties the bay is her sink
and her laundry. There thousands of
naughty children IN many colored suits, or
in. none at all, tumble about on deck
among pots and pans or fall squalling into
the water, to be pulled out by their
convenient, little, red cues by angry
fathers. In one boat sits mother with
jade bracelets, anklets and earrings; her
child is sitting beside her, while she from
his hair assiduously picks-pardon me,
will not offend you, though an old master
has not thought similar group unworthy
of his brush, nor has a Scotch poet dis
dained the things ! dare not name. The
children are dancing with joy, overlooking
with gayety, though truly God alone can
have the power to put happiness into the
wretched cup of such existences; the little
brown legs seem never to be weary, and
the
LITTLE INcIPIENT TAILS
Bob furiously from side to side. These
junks: with patched, straw-woven sails,
come from towns far inland on the rivers
where Caucasians have seldom or never
been, and from ports along the coast; each
has its load of merchandise, the speciality
of the district from which it comes. Some
come with country produce, green sugar
cane and enormous pomelows like giant
oranges others bear coarse earthenware,
rattan chairs, preserved ginger, chow chow,
or boxes of tea. On every available point
are hanging articles of clothing, brown,
blue aud red. One constant, unbroken
food of monosyllabic speech is over all
from sunrise to sunset; so all-peryading is
ii that one in time ceases to hear it. and the
ear is trained to ignore the universal Babel
and to catch by intuition such sounds only
as are addressed to it directly. As we walk
farther, either side of the way becomes
thoroughly Chinese, save the architecture,
which is European. We see people with
pointed bamboo hats like the tops of pago-
das, half naked men grinding rice, women
and beggars dressed literally in rags, their
would put to the blush any crazy quilt "
at home.
THE BEsGARs
Have a peculiar, mesmeric power, OBJ
serve. and can tell when one is looking
at me, though l be reading or writing, and
finally am compelled to look up, when l
catch the glittering eye, and cannot resist
the outstretched palm. A gentleman in
Fulhow tells me that there is a Beggar
King, and by paying TO him certain sum
each year he arranges with the others not
to come to your house. That woman
could look so ugly | never believed posi-
BILE. With skin like leather, crossed and
recrossed by scars and wrinkles, blear-
eyed, without one trace of mother-loye or
womanliness. they seem dried away too far
to die-or maybe they are dead, and do not
know it, as they sit by the side of their
doorways, with deformed feet thrust into
little shoes, mending sandals or patching
the patches Of greasy blousas. Yet this is
all picture full Of beauty, rich in color,
but, as ] said i is the eye only which
holds sinecure. Boys play with shuttle
cocks, dexterously using their feet as bat
tledoors Turning, We come into Queens
Road West, and walk under ercades, which
line the whole way, and peer into the odd
little shops. Soon appear the boarding
houses of Jack ashore and the Chinese
shopkeepers have put out their bait in the
shape of sign-boards. but l think it posi-
BILE that pure Sanskrit would be as inteli-
gible as most of them. The letters are
Roman, indeed, but they have an unmis-
takably I" Eurasians look, and run together
like a flock of blaekbirds. Here are few
Upstairs Restaurant Peter Hong
&" NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
BETTERQUALITY.1
Restaurants and coaee-houses abound,
usually bearing the name of an American
or English city, and often as many as six
at time, reminding me of some tishers
who bait more hooks than one. In some
of the side streets are stalls with all kinds
of ware for sale at optional prices, l be
lieve, for !" beat man down from seven
dollars for an incense burner to the nomi-
oil f1f Fort 0f
booths where narcissus, chrysanthemum,
cockscomb and princes feather are for sale
In profusion, and the air is sweet even
here with the perfume of the lily 1t is
near New Year, and all the town is alive to
business for debtors and creditors must
cease to be such before the moon shows
her face on January 24th. Everywhere is
increasing whirl and confusion. I feel as
though | were being turned about with a
lot of those bits OF coIored glass in a toy
kaleidoscope. There is a common on an
upper terrace, reached by steps through